Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Bauhaus – In The Flat Field (4AD-1980)

Seriously, what do you want me to say?

The mere idea of trying to objectively review this one actually terrifies me beyond belief.

As with any scene, there is justifiable argument about where Goth started; Siouxsie, Joy Division, Gloria Mundi, Killing Joke, UK Decay and others all laid the groundwork, but it was Bauhaus with the deliberately toungue-in-cheek Bela Lugosi’s Dead (Small Wonder Records, 1979) that unintentionally both defined and refined a genre.

Although three-quarters of Bauhaus had known each other through various bands kicking around Northampton previously, the band coalesced when Pete Murphy was asked to join as vocalist, an inspired choice since despite a lack of either musical or lyrical experience he would go on to become one of the most legendary front men the post-punk scene would ever produce.

Initially known as Bauhaus 1919, the numerals were long gone by the release of Bela Lugosi’s Dead. Several more singles followed; Dark Entries (Axis, 1980), Terror Couple Kill Colonel (4AD, 1980), and a cover of T-Rex’s Telgram Sam (4AD, 1980) before the band rolled out In the Flat Field (4AD, 1980), thereby releasing the first full length LP that indisputably belonged to the then nascent scene.

After so many years of DJing Goth clubs and radio shows, this seems a quite extraordinary mea culpa, but apart from compilations and the exemplary Press the Eject and Give me the Tape live album (Beggars Banquet, 1982), it’s only in recent years that I’ve ever owned an actual studio album by Bauhaus, so it’s genuinely interesting to hear this.

While I usually place much emphasis on listening to the original album under discussion, in the case of In The Flat Field this doesn’t actually add much since so much of it has already included on many well-known compilation albums. Nevertheless, these familiar numbers set the template for everything that followed and are well worth revisiting.
Anyhow, no serious exploration of the early scene can realistically avoid including them.

Although the album does include lesser tracks like “Dive” and “Small Talk Stinks”, I do think the closer “Nerves” is frequently overlooked, is generally not included on best-ofs and rates a special mention. Beginning in a fairly nondescript fashion, this number builds and builds until the album climaxes in an aggressive and neurotic explosion as Pete chants “NERVES OF NYLON, NERVES OF STEEL” over and over again, thereby concluding In the Flat Field in a manner both disconcerting and unforgettable.

Reviews in the British press were predictably negative, most bizarrely from Dave McCulloch who, with unintentional irony wrote:

Given the album in question, one is left in jaw-dropping bewilderment as to exactly what Mr McCulloch esq. actually thought "goth-ness" might entail. It remains an interesting review anyhow, since it is also one of the earliest uses of the term "Goth" I've seen applied to the genre.

Bauhaus would go on to release another three full length albums and numerous singles before breaking up in 1983, ironically just as the scene they had given so much to was beginning to be universally understood as “Goth”. Peter Murphy went on to a solo career best remembered for the awesome if very Bowie-esque single "Cuts You Up" (RCA, 1989) while the rest formed first Tones on Tail followed by the much better known Love and Rockets.

They’ve reformed several times since, the most recent reformation resulting in the new studio album Go Away White (Bauhaus Music, 2008).

This project unfortunately seems to have ended badly with no supporting tour and vows to never work together again following what is now referred to only as “the incident”, details of which the band seem exceedingly coy to reveal.

Track listing:

Double Dare

In the Flat Field

A God in an Alcove

Dive

The Spy in the Cab

Small Talk Stinks

St. Vitus Dance

Stigmata Martyr

Nerves

In the Flat Field has since been re-released an astonishing number of times by many companies around the world, the CD versions generally featuring numerous bonus tracks.

Then again, I guess not including it would be a bit like reviewing Led Zeppelin without talking about Stairway to Heaven, so by way of compromise, here it is, all 9+ glorious minutes of it - Goth's very own Stairway to Heaven.

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A Welcome and Introduction

Plunder the Tombs was started back in 2010 by way of looking back on a musical past that I felt in sore need of curation.

It was a strange and sad time when what passed for “Goth” in clubs seemed a pale imitator of what once was, following first a decade of cookie-cutter Sisters of the Nephilim clone bands and then another decade of industrial dance being palmed off to younger audiences as a type of faux goth. When on rare occasion DJs in “Goth” clubs did finally become brave enough to play something like Bauhaus it was not untypical to have the dance floor clear, and it became obvious that the memory, meaning and legacy of much that had gone before had been lost.

It’s probably safe to say that the boundaries of what was “Goth” were never clearly defined. An absolute blessing for those bands on the original scene before it had a name pinned to the donkey, but an outright curse for those who came later and found rules had been imposed to dictate that which was and that which was not acceptable. Worse still was to come in the 90s from a lazy and unquestioning media who simply assumed that anything that wore black and make up was by definition “Goth”, thus allowing all manner of pretenders licence, and maximising confusion as to what the term actually referred to.

This has gone on for way too long and its time is at an end. Neo Post-Punk bands now proliferate across Europe, old long dead Goth bands rise from their crypts in the UK, and new deathrock bands are breeding like rabbits up the west coast of America. It is time to reclaim our scene back from metal bands and ravers in disguise.

While the Plunder the Tombs of old focused on what had gone before, there are now far too many exciting new things to ignore. We roar back to life in a reboot, covering past , present and things yet to come.

Let us plunder the tombs….

About Me

A DJ throughout the 90s at numerous Goth night clubs in Perth including The Cell, Dominion and others he was probably far too drunk to remember, largely as a result of his preference to work for bar tabs over cash. Also helped found 6RTR fm's Goth & Industrial showcase Darkwings.
More recent projects include the currently dormant Descent - a small night dedicated to playing genuinely good Goth music both old and new in preference to packing the dance floor with songs everyone had heard 20 million times before. He currently runs a monthly show on Behind the Mirror on 6RTR fm which can be heard on Wednesdays at 11pm WST.
Rumour has it he once masterminded an ill-advised Goth fanzine "Small Pleasures" that in retrospect, he remains profoundly grateful never made it off his desk.